5:18 commissioner chiu: good afternoon. welcome to the san francisco board of supervisors meeting of december 14, 2010. >> alioto-pier present. avalos present. campos present. chiu present. chu present. daly present. dufty present. elsbernd present. mar present. maxwell present. mirkarimi present. mr. president, all members are present. commissioner chiu: thank you. ladies and gentlemen, could you please join me for the pledge of allegiance?

colleagues, i just want to mention as far as the agenda today, given that this is the last meeting of 2010 and we have a lot of items, what i would like to propose is that we go through the consent agenda, moving to local hiring, and given how many people are here with regards to the america's cup, we move to that item and proceed through the rest of the calendar until our 3:00 p.m. special orders and moved to our 3:00 p.m. special orders, including the discussion of its potential nomination around an interim there. why don't we move to the meeting minutes? you should have copies of your november 9 and november 16 meeting minutes. motion by supervisor mirkarimi to approve. without objection, this meeting minutes will be approved.

are there any communications? if you could read the consent agenda, items one through 16. >> items 1 through 16 comprise the consent agenda. the items will be acted upon by a single roll call vote unless a matter is removed and considered separately. commissioner chiu: would anyone like to consider these items -- to sever any of these items? roll call vote. >> alioto-pier aye. avalos aye. campos aye. chiu aye. chu aye. daly aye. dufty aye. elsbernd aye. mar aye. maxwell aye. mirkarimi aye. there are 11 ayes. commissioner chiu: these ordinances are finally passed and resolution adopted. item 17. >> item 17 is a resolution

approving an amount not to exceed $30 million in tax-exempt qualified bonds for the financing and refinancing of the golden gate park music concourse the raj. commissioner chiu: same house, same call? the resolution is adopted. item 18. >> item 18 is from the budget and finance committee without recommendation. and ordinance amending the administrative code regarding local hiring policies for construction. commissioner avalos: colleagues, i would like to thank you for your support, for helping to pass on first reading the nation's strongest local hiring mandate. it took quite a road to get here. over the past year, i first introduced this idea requested a draft from the city attorney back in january and spent the whole year to get to where we got to last week with an 8 majority vote.

do not want to talk too much today, but wanted to acknowledge some of the folks who i did not quite acknowledged last week, and i know i had a very long list of people. i want to give a special mention to caa, cpa, power, the osiris coalition, local to 61, and local 22. the carpenters' union signed on, and we got a letter of support from the carpenters' union for this legislation. i wanted to go a little bit further in highlighting some individuals who were key in making this legislation come to fruition. in my office, we huddled with people across the city family with contractors, with building trades, with community members and city departments to help make this happen. i said last week this legislation would not be here without her. i stand by that statement. keeping people in the communities, i want to

acknowledge the president of kwon row ironworks. she has been a general contractor based in the bayview and has been proud of her work for us, composed of my note -- 90% minority san franciscans. she is formerly the president of the asian american contractors association and has been an active part of this effort. see celebrates her birthday today and says the passage of this legislation today will be a great birthday present. i also want to acknowledge espanola jackson, who could not be here today because she is preparing to go to surgery, but she has truly been a stalwart in the fight for mandatory hiring for many years. her first husband was an electrician in the navy, first lieutenant, and the first african american worker tradesman at hetch hetchy in the 1950's. however, he was never able to join the union. it was this experience that fueled her passion for access to

the trade. 50 years later, we know that things have much improved and with the passage of this measure, but even greater pathways to careers and the trades will be opened up. i also want to thank reuben, a native san franciscan who grew up in the mission district and is now a union general contractor based here in san francisco. he has a 10-year history of hiring san franciscans at well above 50% as his way of giving back to the community. he has a compelling story about how he took over a project in the bayview where there was a great deal of attention between workers from a former contractor who have really messed up the relationships on the contract. he came in and hired young people off the street, just asking for jobs, hungry for work. he put them to work on the project, and they were there for months, for the duration that

was left on the project. a pastor from one of the churches came up to him afterward and thank him for what he did. he helped to lower the murder rate by giving the opportunity to these young people. that is a story that mr. santana tells over and over again and tells -- speaks to the power of this local hiring legislation. third-generation bay view resident and member of the hunters point shipyard cac, she is an out of work electrical worker and a member of ibew. she was part of the stake holder group that met over the summer and helped to -- was with us the whole way through drafting this ordinance. lastly, i want to acknowledge joshua, a relentless force behind local hiring and particularly this legislation. he first came to me last year are around this time to educate me about the cleveland organs --

cleveland ohio -- and the court ruling upholding their mandatory local hiring legislation. it was from that meeting that i knew we could do it here but we would have a long road to make it happen. i want to thank him for all of his work. this legislation before us, i hope we can get to the right vote. thank you. commissioner chiu: thank you. any further discussion? roll call vote on this item. >> item 18, alioto-pier no. avalos aye. campos aye. chiu aye. chu no. daly aye. dufty aye. elsbernd no. mar aye. maxwell aye. mirkarimi aye. there are eight ayes and three nos. commissioner chiu: this

ordinance is finally passed. [applause] >> never again! commissioner chiu: congratulations. as i mentioned earlier in the agenda, if we could now move to item 53, the america's cup item. >> item 53 was considered by the budget and finance committee at a recess meeting and was forwarded to the board as a committee report. it was recommended with an amended agreement. item 53 is a resolution approving a host city and a new agreement among the city. the america's cup event authority and san francisco america's cup organizing committee authorizing the mayor or his designee and the port to execute the host city and the new agreement and finding that

the proposed event is physically feasible as set forth in the administrative code chapter 29. commissioner chiu: thank you. if we could just give the audience a moment to clear out. as you are leaving, if you could please keep your voice is down. we do have a lot of business today. ok, why don't we begin the discussion? i know supervisors mirkarimi has a few commons. then we can proceed to city staff. commissioner mirkarimi: thank you, mr. president. i'm delighted that what is before us today is a revised

bid that really in unprecedented time we have seen practically almost a rare consensus of the city's elected family coming together and doing its best to marshal its resources in putting forth the best economic plans to secure the hosting rights of the america's cup. this body, the board of supervisors, immediately seized opportunity. when we knew mr. ellison had won the cup, we passed a resolution unanimously, from their ensuing war negotiations, and this according between the mayor's office, members of the boards, the city family, and bmw oracle. the first terms that were

designs on the central waterfront was just not economically feasible. really, to everyone's advantage, even despite the very unorthodox kind of negotiating environment, because of the rapid time that we have had due to parameters that have been imposed upon us to come up with clear-cut answers, we now were able to see i think what was a smarter proposal so that the assumption of risks would be mitigated, and the liability for the city and its people would be significantly reduced. that was the extension of us shipping from the central waterfront bid proposal to the northern waterfront, which is before us today. i really want to say how impressive in has been for the san francisco port authority, oewd, the mayor's office,

members of the board of supervisors, mr. mark buell, and others who really have been demonstrating significant due diligence, which for holiday spirit reasons alone should earn us the right to secure the cup, but i think by us being able to illustrate very concretely why san francisco is the best place in this nation and abroad to host the cup, that is the deal before us. it is a great deal for san francisco as long as we are not shouldering the kind of excess of responsibility that we were quite concerned about before. great questions were being asked by a number of our colleagues here to keep the negotiations on track, and they really helped contribute, i think, to the

intellectual arsenal for us to make sure -- this is really unprecedented for something of this nature and size to come before san francisco. the city attorney's office has also been working around the clock in order to really be as agile as possible to doing something that no other city in the country or abroad has had to do, and that is negotiate in a transparent environment such as ours. italy and spain do not have to go through this. leaders of their government can advance the deal in more of a unilateral fashion. there is no other city in the united states that is really a contender or has been identified yet, and yet, we have been negotiating in the most transparent public way to be able to advance this dialogue and advance incredible proposal within a really somewhat unorthodox, very restrictive kind of timeline.

before us is that product that has come from an immense amount of contributions from a number of people and apartments that i identified. yesterday in the meeting that was continued, we agree that this should be advanced with recommendation, which is what is before us here. mr. president, thank you for helping with the orchestration from our end. i would then ask the city to come and speak to the newest deal before us. commissioner chiu: before that happens, let me call upon supervisor alioto-pier. commissioner alioto-pier: thank you. i would just like to start by thanking a few people. i am for sure going to forget some, but i have been attending these american cup organizing committee meetings for i suppose now for a month or month and a

half, and the amount of people who come, regular san franciscans who would like to see the america's cup come to san francisco and who are actively participating and trying to help us finance it and actually get it to san francisco -- i do not think we can thank them all enough. there is the city staff, carry mcclellan, jennifer mattes, brad benson, monique moyer. the port has been remarkable. i would say the former port commissioner, we have great assets at the port of san francisco, but they are slowly starting to fall into the water. as we have seen with pierre 30/32, it has the shelf life of another, i think, 10 years. without some kind of revitalization, we could lose this asset. it is the same as you go down the port of sand and cisco. the america's cup gives us a great opportunity to rebuild that, to bring economic not

just viability but a thriving economic community back to san francisco bay, so i would like to thank everyone who has been part of that. i would be remiss without thanking mark buell, who is heading the acoc, and also lucy, one of my constituents, a jewel to san francisco, who has been active on and all of the past america's cups and actually won it for the united states way back when, so i think it is important for us to recognize the people that are citizens of san francisco have done so much for the america's cup historically and who are going to hopefully be helping us bring it here to san francisco. it is a very exciting time, and actually look forward to what the next months bring. thank you. commissioner campos: i simply want to just acknowledge all the work that has gone into this

project. as someone who sat in on the finance and budget committee hearing that happened last week, i'm very proud of the work that has been done, and the fact that a lot of the questions were raised. i think this is a much stronger proposal in terms of protecting san francisco, and i will be proud to support it. commissioner chiu: with that, let me ask city staff if you could make a presentation on where we stand today? starting with mr. vincent from the port -- mr. benson. >> special projects manager. the office of economic and workforce development. we are really grateful for the consideration by the budget and

finance committee. all of the work of the budget analyst and the controller in terms of analyzing the work that we have put forward. the committee recommended the northern waterfront alternative after consulting with the team about their race needs. we noted in the committee hearing yesterday that we have not had a full opportunity to discuss the northern waterfront alternative with the team. we did have an opportunity to sit down with mr. stephen barkley representing the event authority yesterday after a budget and finance committee to hear exactly what those concerns were and spend until about 7:00 last night going back and forth

and trying to fashion a more certain terms of the agreement that will strengthen the city's bid. the port commission resolution approving the host city agreement really provided city staff authority to further negotiate as long as we do not increase the city's obligations or liabilities in consultation with the city attorney's office. we feel we have done that. i would like to spend just two minutes going over some of the proposed revisions to the agreement that we think makes it stronger. first in section 6.2 of the agreement, now permits the authorities investment in some of our historic peers in the northern waterfront with rent credits to repay that investment. section 7.3, consistent with the budget analyst recommendation provides for a term sheet approval of any long- term development rights by the board of supervisors. we have entered the budget analyst's recommendations regarding fair market rents by

an appraisal process. the board negotiated for participation read, which is something that we have been trying to get out of this agreement for some time. basically, some terms of balance the fundamental give/get that the authority invested in a waterfront, and they get long- term development rights to be paid back. we have provided a memo to each of your offices summarizing each of those terms. we have submitted a revised to the city agreement to the file. we are very excited about this bid and what it can do for the city's waterfront, and we are available to answer any questions you may have. commissioner chiu: any questions, colleagues? commissioner mirkarimi: considering how far we have come, if in fact my prediction holds true that this will

prevail, what then possibly is the next step if in fact the city family comes together and says this is the best deal? then what? >> what we have heard from the team is that they would like to enter a signed agreement by the end of this week. the protocol for the 34th america's cup provides that the cup holder will in consultation with the challenger of record choose the venue for the race by december 31, so we hope that when the city submits this bid formally that we will hear perhaps within the week as to whether or not san francisco will be selected. commissioner mirkarimi: and if san francisco did not receive the bid in itself, that means other cities potentially would be submitted a bid but

submitting it most likely after the december 31 timeline. is that correct? >> i cannot speak to whether or not that timeline would be extended. we did hear about some authority representatives travelling to newport and other locations to see if there were other viable competitors to san francisco, but we do not have a lot of information about those bids and discussions. commissioner mirkarimi: thank you. commissioner chiu: colleagues, additional questions? ok. are there other members from city staff that wish to make any presentations with regards to this? any further discussion, colleagues?

colleagues, before we vote, i want to really thank everyone who has taken part in this. whether we have sale or not, you know that to win a sailing race, every member of the crew has to work together -- the skipper and crew -- and i'm very grateful to all of you for the roles you have played. supervisor mirkarimi, supervisor alioto-pier, and others who have been supportive from the beginning, thank you. but also, supervisor daly, i want to thank you for injecting significant fiscal reality into the discussion. supervisor campos played a significant role in helping to ensure that the agreement is tight. i want to thank all of the members of the city family. every single one of you who are here spent countless hours in recent weeks to pull this together. countless nights, countless phone calls. i also want to thank the representatives from the team

that met with many of us and worked patiently with us to work through the complicated details. this is not a simple agreement, but it is a very thorough agreement. we will obviously need to in the future approve other leases and deals related to this, but i think where we are right now, this is truly, i believe, not just the best bid for the city, but the best bid internationally for the america's cup. the no. waterfront option, from everyone's perspective, i think, not only will result in a much better experience for spectators and for the race, but it is much better, i think, from a business perspective for the city as well as for the team. with that, i urge all of us to vote for that, and again, thank everyone for your efforts. commissioner mirkarimi: supervisor daly. commissioner daly: i was not trying to get the last word from our board president, but a couple of other folks to thank.

but in the process of thanking them, let me say this -- ultimately hear in these chambers -- ultimately here in these chambers, we are the quasi-official boosters of sand francisco, but when it comes down to what our real responsibility and obligations are, it is really to the people of this city and the resources that they entrust us with and a responsibility to make sure that government can run. i have talked often about how little impact even very powerful politicians like the president of the united states have when it comes to dealing with the ups and downs of the economy.

in these chambers, our power is really are on the periphery, affecting weather joblessness is up or down, who gets employment. who gets left out, that sort of thing, but when it comes to the city's treasury, when it comes to the annual budget process, and what we do with the people's money in our accounts, we have a great deal power. so i am happy that i can come aboard. i know that i have very exciting language when i opposed the previous term sheet. the reason why i amplified the language is because i knew that the city just could not afford that type of outlay of cash and that loss on our books. regardless of how big of a booster any of us would want to

be for san francisco and putting san francisco in the spotlight and doing a little bit too improve the regional economy, ultimately, our undying allegiance is to the city and county in terms of local government and the resources that are here. to that effect, let me thank the budget chair here on the board of supervisors. john avalos, who was a nay vote initially because it appeared that it was going to cost the city too much and also a very heartfelt thanks to the team of harvey rose and associates. specifically fred russo. thank you for your work on this. thank you for actually looking at the numbers and getting us the information that we needed to make an informed decision. i t c